Something is changing in our movies. It’s subtle, but it’s there. It’s a minor invasion of actors and co-starring players. They pop up in low-budget indie dramas, shaggy Britcoms and even fully fledged Hollywood blockbusters. And every time we see them they provoke from deep within us the same reflex response: “Oooh, isn’t that whatshername, from Downton?”

This week it’s the turn of Joanne Froggatt, aka Downton Abbey’s loyal maid, Anna Bates, who is appearing in two films, as a drugs counsellor in the feelgood drama A Street Cat Named Bob and the wife of a sepsis sufferer in the weepie Starfish. Meanwhile, Laura Carmichael, aka Lady Edith, is starring in the road movie Burn Burn Burn. Before that, Jessica Brown Findlay (Lady Sybil) appeared…

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